The use of role play activities to improve speaking skills for the first-year English major students at HaNoi University of industry

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS TABLES: Table 1: Teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards speaking skills and the role of teaching and learning speaking skill Table 2: Teachers‟ and students

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN THE USE OF ROLE PLAY ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG ‘ĐÓNG VAI’ NHẰM CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG

NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT CHUYÊN ANH

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN THE USE OF ROLE PLAY ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG ‘ĐÓNG VAI’ NHẰM CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG

NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT CHUYÊN ANH

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa Ph.D

HÀ NỘI - 2012

1 Background of the study and problem statement

2 Aim and objectives of the study

3 Research questions

4 Scope of the study

5 Method of the study

6 Significance of the study

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1.2.1 Difficulties in teaching / learning speaking skills

1.1.2.2 Methods of teaching speaking skills

1.1.3 A successful speaking activity in classroom

1.1.4 Activities to promote speaking skills

1.2 Role play

1.2.1 Definition of role play

1.2.2 Types and procedures in using role play

CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Research design

2.2 Setting and subjects of the study

2.3 Research procedure

2.3.1 Conducting preliminary study

2.3.2 Planning the action

2.3.2.1 Choosing teaching materials

2.3.2.2 Preparing the lesson plan

2.3.2.3 Making role play activities evaluation form

2.3.2.4 Setting the criteria of success

2.3.3 Implementing the action

2.3.4 Observing the action

2.3.5 Reflecting the action

3.1.1 Data analysis of teachers and students‟ survey

questionnaires in preliminary investigation 3.1.2 Findings from preliminary investigation

3.2 Research findings and discussion from action

implementation

3.2.1 Findings from cycle 1

3.2.1.1 Finding on the students‟ speaking performance

3.2.1.2 Findings on the students‟ self-confidence

3.2.2 Findings from cycle 2

3.2.2.1 Findings on the students‟ speaking performance

3.2.2.2 Findings on the students‟ self-confidence

3.2.2.3 Data analysis and findings from the students‟

questionnaires 3.2.2.4 Reflection

3 Limitations of the study

4 Suggestions for further study

Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for teachers

Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for students

Appendix 3: Lesson plans

Appendix 4: Role play activities evaluation form

Appendix 5: The frame of Harris‟s oral English rating scores

Appendix 6 : Situations

Appendix 7 : Survey questionnaires for students

I

I III

V XLVIII XLIX LII LVI

LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS

HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry

TESL: Teaching English as a Second Language

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

N: Number

Ts: Teachers

Ss: Students

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS TABLES:

Table 1: Teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards speaking skills and the role of teaching and learning speaking skill

Table 2: Teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards speaking material

Table 3: Teachers‟ techniques to encourage students to speak and improve their English speaking skills

Table 4: Results of students‟ speaking performance in cycle 1

Table 5: Results of students‟ speaking performance in cycle 2

Table 6: Results from survey questionnaire for students

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Background of the study and problem statement

Currently, English has become a language of international communication, so it

is important for people to learn English However, today‟s world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should focus not only on linguistic competence of the language learners but also on the development of their communicative abilities, because, only in that way, learners can express themselves in each communicative circumstance There are four skills in teaching and learning a language: listening, speaking, reading and writing, but out of the four skills, speaking is considered as the most essential skill to be mastered Considering how important speaking skill in learning English, O‟Malley and Pierce (1996) state that speaking seems to be an important skill in order to enable learners to communicate effectively through oral language because the disability of the learners to speak may lead them to be unable

to express their ideas even in a simple form of conversation However, using English for speaking is not simple since learners have to master several important elements of English such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension In that case, teachers are supposed to be creative in developing their teaching learning process to give attention to the elements of speaking, improve students‟ speaking skill, and make the English lesson more exciting

Since the elements of the teaching speaking are various, many problems occur

in the teaching learning process In learning English speaking skill, students often face with some problems The first common problem found is that the influence of their native language makes it difficult to use the foreign language The second one

is students‟ low motivation, high anxiety and limited vocabulary Students are not enthusiastic and not confident enough to use English in speaking class

The author has found that those problems are also confronted by the first-year English major students of HaUI The problems with students‟ speaking skills can be caused by a lot of different factors including students‟ interest and attitudes towards learning English, the material, and even teachers‟ monotonous and inappropriate

use of teaching techniques, which makes students bored and unmotivated in the speaking lesson, and not confident about their speaking skills Hence, it is crucial to propose appropriate techniques to overcome the students‟ low speaking ability It is the responsibility of the teacher to find out an effective technique in order to stimulate the students‟ positive attitude towards the speaking class and their speaking skills (Burns & Joyce, 1997:10)

To teach the students how to speak in the best way possible, the author decided

to choose role play activities as an effective teaching technique The effectiveness

of role play activities in improving students‟ speaking skills has been demonstrated

in a number of research studies In specific, role play has an important role in teaching speaking because it offers students a chance to practice communicating in different social contexts and in different social roles In role play activities, students act to be someone else in the actual world situation that is brought into the classroom “By bringing the outside world into the classroom, we can provide a lot

of useful practice that would otherwise be impossible in cafés, shops, banks, etc.”(Scrivener, 1998:363) Besides, for the shy learners, according to Ladousse (1989), role play supports the confidence of shy learners because here they are provided with a mask where learners with difficulty in conversation are liberated They learn how to interact with other peers without being afraid that their mistakes might cause some misunderstanding In brief, role play is indeed a useful teaching technique which should be applied by ESL/EFL teachers more often in the ESL/EFL classrooms

Based on the theoretical background and the findings of previous studies about the effectiveness of role play activities above, the author would like to implement

an action research in which role play activities were used as a technique of teaching speaking to improve the speaking skills for the first year English major students at HaUI

2 Aim and objectives of the study

The general aim of the study is to improve the first-year English major students of HaUI speaking skills through using role play activities

There are several objectives of the study, those are:

 To investigate the real situation of teaching and learning speaking skill to the first year English major students at HaUI including the quality and methods

of teaching and learning speaking kills;

 To research how the speaking skills of the first year English major students

at HaUI can be improved through using role play activities;

 To examine the students‟ attitudes toward using role play activities in teaching and learning English

(ii) How can the speaking skills of the first year English major students at

HaUI be improved through role play activities?

(iii) What are the first year English major students‟ attitudes toward using

role play activities in teaching and learning speaking?

4 Scope of the study

The study focuses on examining how using role play activities improve speaking skills in a number of criteria including “pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension” (adapted from Harris, 1969) Also, the study is limited to the context of HaUI with the participation of 28 first –year English major students from the Faculty of Foreign Languages Although the author

is well aware that the survey statistics are not fully representative of all the major students of English at many universities in Vietnam, she hopes to propose some of the most popular facts that occurring in the study

5 Method of the study

In order to achieve the aims and objectives mentioned above, action research procedures were used in this study Firstly, a survey questionnaire was delivered to the teachers so that more information on the current situation and problems they faced and solutions implemented can be collected Then, another questionnaire was also given to the first year English major students to investigate their problems in learning speaking skills The information from questionnaires can help to draw a general picture about the reality of teaching and learning speaking skills at HaUI and to find out an effective solution that is using role play activities to improve the students‟ speaking skills To investigate how speaking skills of the first year English major students at HaUI can be improved through using role play activities, the author implemented an action plan in the form of cycles that follows Kemmis and McTaggart‟s model (2000:564) including, planning, implementation, observation, and reflection Also, the author distributed open-ended and close-ended questionnaires to the students to examine their attitudes towards role play activities

in improving their speaking skills

6 Significance of the study

The result of this study is expected to give practical contribution to the teaching

of English, particularly at HaUI where the study was conducted For the English teachers, the use of role play activities can be one of the effective teaching techniques to improve the students‟ English speaking skill For students, using role play activities can help them to improve their English speaking skills as well as overcome shyness in order to be able to communicate in English orally For other researchers who conduct the same study, the result of this study is expected to be a reference and contribute more information to solve the same problems

Part two is Development which is systematically divided into three chapters The following is a short description about what each chapter contains

Chapter one: Literature review It provides an overview of speaking skills and role play

Chapter two: Research methodology This chapter deals with the research method covering research design, setting and subjects of the study, research procedure

Chapter three: Data analysis, research findings and discussion First, the analysis of the data of teachers‟ and students‟ questionnaires and the results of preliminary investigation are displayed in order to come to the conclusion that it is very important to implement an action plan in which role play activities are used Then, the findings from the implementation of action plan are discussed Finally, a discussion emerging from the findings is presented to answer the research questions

Part three is Conclusion which gives a summary of the thesis, shows limitations, and proposes pedagogical implications and suggestions for further study taken from the results of the study

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an extensive review of literature on speaking skills and role play activities First, an overview of speaking skills including definition of speaking skill, types of speaking skills, teaching speaking skills, assessment of speaking skills and activities to promote speaking skills is presented Also, this chapter is also designed to present definition of role play, types and procedures in using role play, and significance of role play in teaching speaking skills

1.1 Overview of speaking skills

1.1.1 Definition of speaking

So far there have been a lot of definitions of speaking given, each deals with one aspect of speaking, however, they all state speaking involves in speech and through speech speakers expresses his attitudes, feelings, etc

In Oxford Dictionary of Current English (2009:414), speaking is “the action of conveying information or expressing ones‟ thoughts and feelings in spoken languages”

According to Chaney and Burke (1998:13), speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety

of context.”

In terms of language teaching and learning, speaking is considered as one of the four important language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) to practice and master In this light, Nunan (2003:48) puts it that “speaking is the productive oral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning.” Also regarding speaking as a skill, Bygate (1987:3) investigates the distinction between knowledge and skill in a speaking lesson, which he considers as crucial in the teaching of speaking He argues that speaking is considered as a skill which

knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc is not enough but the skill

to use this knowledge to communicate successfully is indispensable

To sum up, there are different ways to define speaking, i.e speaking as an action, a process and a skill In this study, the term “speaking” will be used as a skill related to language teaching and learning In the next part, issues related to teaching speaking skills will be presented

1.1.2 Teaching speaking

According to Kayi (2006:1-2) what is meant by teaching speaking is to teach English language learners to:

 Produce the English speech sounds and sounds patterns

 Use words and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language

 Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter

 Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence

 Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments

 Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which

is called fluency (Kayi, 2006:1-2 cited in Nunan, 2003)

1.1.2.1 Difficulties in teaching and learning speaking skills

1.1.2.1.1 Difficulties in teaching speaking skills

Classroom activities that develop learners‟ ability to express themselves through speech is an important component of a language course However, it is more difficult to design and administer such activities than to do so for listening, reading or writing Ur (1996:121) states four problems in teaching speaking skills that teachers often come across They are:

 Inhibition

Unlike reading, writing, and listening activities, speaking requires some degree of real time exposure to an audience Learners are often inhibited about trying to say things in a foreign language in the classroom They are worried about making

mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts

 Nothing to say

Even if the learners are not inhibited, teachers often hear learners complain that they cannot think of anything to say

 Low or uneven participation

Only one participant talk at time if he or she is to be heard, and in large group, this means that each one will have only little talking time This problem is compounded

by the tendency of some learners to dominate the activity, while others speak very little or not at all

 Mother tongue use

In classes where all, or a number or the learners share the mother language, they may tend to use the mother tongue because it is easier, and because they feel less

„exposed‟ if they are speaking their mother tongue

1.1.2.1.2 Difficulties in learning speaking skills

Based on a survey of EFL teachers, the main challenges in the EFL classroom are to be lack of motivation, students‟ reluctance to speak, and the use of the first language (Nunan, 1993 in Celce-Murcia, 2001) It implies that in speaking class, it

is not easy to make students speak Students‟ reluctance to speak, according to Burns and Joyce‟s survey (in Nunan, 1999) may be caused by some factors: cultural factors, linguistic factors and /or psychological factors In line with the ideas, Thornbury (2006) explains that the main difficulties the learner - speaker often faces are the limited skills factors, in which their knowledge is not sufficiently automated to ensure fluency As a result of these limitations, there may be also affective factors such as lack of confidence of self-consciousness, which might inhibit fluency

When the students feel not confident to speak, teachers are supposed to help

does not In sum, as teachers, they need to be aware of any problems that students might face in speaking class

1.1.2.2 Methods of teaching speaking skills

Now many linguistics and English as second language (ESL) teachers agree with creating a classroom environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities and meaningful tasks that promote oral language This can occur when students collaborate in groups or pairs to achieve a goal or to complete a task Byrne (1991:22-31) points out that there are three phases

in the teaching of a speaking lesson to develop learners‟ oral ability, which are presented as follows:

 The presentation phase

In this phase, teachers are the centre It means that they work as information provider So far, oral materials are written mainly in two forms in every course-book They are dialogues and prose And obviously these two forms must be presented in different ways

According to Byrne (1991:22) ten different steps are used to present a dialogue They are the following:

 Establish setting by using pictures At this phase English should be used as much as possible

 Draw out learners‟ experience related to situation

 Explain some key words

 Set listening task by asking key information of the dialogue

 Ask learners listen without looking at the books

 Allow learners to have a look at their book when necessary for them

 Ask the learners to listen and repeat

 Ask learners to pick up difficulties (good chance for them to speak) and explain difficulties

 Ask them to practice (role-play)

 Ask them to dramatize the dialogue

 It is known that this procedure is perfectly and logically arranged However,

it is dependent on learner‟s competence so some steps can be left out It is quite hard for Vietnamese learners to conduct the ten steps because they are generally shy and time is limited

 The practice phase

Unlike the presentation phase, this phase learners have to do most of talking Teachers provide maximum amount of practice Practice is usually in the forms of activities to improve fluency of speaking At this phase, pair work or group work is used

 The production phase

Learners need chances to speak English freely at this phase A real chance to speak English takes place when the learner is able to use English naturally for themselves, not for their teachers

Byrne (1991:22) concludes that in order to improve speaking ability of learners, these three phases above should be followed orderly But in fact, they might not be applied as expected due to time limitation, types of learners and materials in use The teachers should pay attention to what has been spoken by the students during the Practice and Production phases so that they can see how far students have improved their speaking skills and what mistakes they might produce A speaking lesson is successful or not depends on many factors such as learners‟ participation, the use of language, etc This matter will be dealt with in the following part

1.1.3 A successful speaking lesson in classroom

Ur (1996:120) explains four elements of a successful speaking lesson They are:

 Learners talk a lot

A speaking class indicated by most of the period time allotted the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk It seems obvious, but most time is taken up with teacher

A monitoring of talkative participant doesn‟t dominate classroom discussion here, it

is hinted that all get a chance to speak and are fairly evenly distributed

 Motivating is high

This is indicated by the eagerness of the learners to speak Students are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it

 Language is of an acceptable level

It means that learns need to express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easy

to comprehend each other and can be acceptable level language accuracy

According to Nunan (1996: 32) successful oral communication should involve developing:

 The ability to articulate phonological features of the language comprehensibly;

 Mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns; an acceptable degree of fluency;

 Transactional and interactional skills;

 Skills in talking short and long speaking in turns, in the management of the interaction, and in negotiating meaning;

 Conversational listening skills (successful conversations require good listeners as well as speakers);

 Skills in knowing about and negotiating purposes for conversations;

 Using appropriate conversational formulate and fillers

In summary, there are many factors of a successful speaking lesson However,

it is not easy at all to implement such a speaking activity that satisfies all above mentioned criteria, but it is necessary to remind language teachers of them as they design and administer such activities So, what kinds of activities can be used to improve speaking skills? The question will be addressed in the next part

1.1.4 Activities to improve speaking skills

There are many activities to promote speaking As Hayriye Kayi (2006: 1-2) inferred from many linguistics on her article in the internet on Teaching English as

A Second Language (TESL) Journal, activities such as discussion, role play, and picture describing can be employed to improve speaking skills

Discussion

After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons The students may aim to share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things

Role play

Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles In role play activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel Thus, the teacher can tell the student that

"You are David; you go to the doctor and…" (Harmer, 1984)

Picture describing

For this activity students can form groups and each group is given a different picture Students discuss the picture with their groups, and then a spokesperson for each group describes the picture to the whole class This activity fosters the

creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills

In general, there are a lot of activities to improve students‟ speaking skill Among these activities, however, role play appears to be one of the most appropriate and advantageous which can enable learners to practice in free less controlled situations in the classroom Thus, the following part of the thesis is going

to go into the details of role play

1.2 Role play

1.2.1 Definition of role play

Since communicative approach appeared on the stage as a new fresh air in language teaching, role play has gained its own respectful position in English

classroom syllabus A large number of scholars such as Byrne (1986), Maley (1987)

and Ladousse (1989), who perceive role play activities as an effective instrument to enhance learners‟ activeness and efficiency of learning English

In order to understand about role play in details, first and foremost, it is important to examine the differences between simulation and role play According

to Crookal and Oxford (1990:3), there is little consensus on the terms used in the role play and simulation literature Just a few of the terms which are used, often interchangeably, are "simulation," "game," "role-play," "simulation-game," "role-play simulation," and "role-playing game" There does seem to be some agreement, however, that simulation is a broader concept than role play The main difference is that simulations are more structured and contain more diverse elements Ladousse (1989) explains that simulations are complex, lengthy and relatively inflexible events which will always include an element of role play, whereas role play can be

a simple and brief technique to organize He sums up that it is not possible and profitable to make fine distinctions between these two (Ladousse, 1989:5)

Byrne (1986) defines role play by an extremely brief sentence “Let‟s pretend”

It can be understood that, in role play, students are not themselves any longer, but someone else in either realistic or imaginative situations, for instance, a tourist, a customer in a shop In addition, he also adds that “Role play is a way of taking the students out of the classroom for a while and showing them how English can be useful to them in certain situations.” In defining role play, Byrne (1986) also gives some comments that role play is a part of drama activity In specific, he describes that there are three terms to cover the drama activities They are mime (mimicry-memorization), role play and simulation He distinguishes the terms as follows:

 Mime: The participants perform actions without using words

 Role play: The participants interact either as themselves or others in imaginary situations

 Simulations: For this activity the participants normally discuss a problem of some kind with some setting that has been defined for them

From his opinion, it can be seen that both role play and simulation are commonly used in foreign language classes to facilitate communicative competence whereas mime seems more appropriate as a language game It is performing actions without using words For instance, if someone mimes and action, the others try to guess what it is

Ladousse (1989) seems to agree with Byrne‟s opinion about role play In the book under the title “Role play” Ladousse defines role play on the basis of the separate words “role” and “play”: “when students assume a “role”, they play a part (either their own or somebody else‟s) in a specific situation “Play” represents the role is taken on in a safe environment in which students are as inventive and playful

as possible In the roles, students are creating their own reality and, by doing so, are experimenting either their knowledge of the real world and developing their ability

to interact with other people.” (1989:5)

In Maley‟s view (1987:108), “role play can range from highly directed and controlled activities, in which all the content is supplied to the students, to full scale simulation, in which participants determine what they will say on the basic of background information and the role they are given” It can be clearly seen that he wishes to make a move from the focus to the clarification of role play‟s level onto a scale

After all, it is better to take the definition of Byrne about role play due to its full information, clearly-defined and simple language It also shows the familiarity between role play and simulation, that is highly flexible and leaving a great scope for students‟ creation and imagination to use the language items

is totally clear that each scholar has his own viewpoint of role play; however, they all agree that role play is mostly recognized as an effective technique for communicative language teaching Role play activities help students to encourage their thinking and creativity, lets them practice and develop new language and create the motivation and involvement necessary for learning to occur To be more detailed, the following part aims at presenting some types and procedures in using role play as well

1.2.2 Types and procedures in using role play

1.2.2.1 Types of role play

Role play is a speaking activity where learners participate either themselves or

as somebody else in a specific situation According to Nestel and Tierney (2007), role play activities typically fall within one of three categories One category of role play is the fully scripted role play During the fully scripted role play, participants interact through a given script There is no opportunity for personal response from the participants during this type of role play Still, there are typically opportunities for discussion and reflection following the activity Another type of role play is the partially scripted role play During the partially scripted role play, the participant is given an opening prompt or an outline to guide his responses The final type of role play is the completely unscripted role play In the unscripted role play, participants are expected to perform as they typically would within a given scenario (Nestel & Tierney, 2007)

Considering types of role play, on the other hand, Littlewood (1994) divides

role play activities based on the nature of information that is given to learners as follows:

 The first type is role play controlled through cued dialogues Learners receive cues on separate cards when joining this activity Each learner must listen to his partner before providing an appropriate response The cues enable them to predict and to prepare the general gist of their responses The teacher can elicit the appropriate forms which help learners later The cues control the functional

meanings that learners have to express The social situation and relationship determine what kind of language is appropriate Teachers can prepare the activity

by equipping the learners with suitable forms Two sets of cues must interlock closely; no cue produces an utterance which conflicts with what follows It can be seen this type of activity limits the creativity (Littlewood, 1994:51)

 The second type is role play controlled through cues and information It has

a more flexible framework Only one learner is given detailed cues The other is given information that allows him to respond as necessary The structure comes from one student who can improvise variations, the other one has to respond The teacher‟s control becomes looser and the learner‟s scope for creativity increases The emphasis in these activities is on practicing the process of communication rather than on evaluating its product In the pre-communicative language practice the learner‟s attention is focused on the forms he / she needs to learn These cued activities enable the teacher to control the interaction and to ensure that learners express a particular range of meanings (Littlewood, 1994: 52, 53)

 The third type of role play is role play controlled through situation and goals in which learners have a greater control over their interaction It is now directed at the higher level of situation and the goals that learners have to achieve through communication The learners are initially aware only of the overall situation and their own goals in it They must negotiate the interaction itself For instance (Littlewood, 1994:55, 56)

 The last type of role play is in the form of debate or discussion In details, the situation is a debate or discussion about a real or simulated issue The prerequisites for the activity are that learners should have adequate knowledge about the issue, different opinions to defend At first, learners must digest the information relevant to the issue, then they must discuss in a small group They can either get to a concrete decision or just put the issue to a vote at the end The

language competence, the author finds that the first year English major students‟ level at HaUI is not very high, just at elementary level Thus, these students could find the first type of role play boring: the dialogues here are simple and not very creative They are unlikely to cope with debates or discussions because their range

of vocabulary and grammar is not sufficient enough On the other hand, the second

and the third type (cues and information, situation and goals) enable them to develop their creativity The students are fond of making up various situations in

which they can express their imagination This can be highly motivating for them Moreover, in these two types of role play, the teacher can help the students with the

forms and vocabulary necessary for the particular situation In this study; therefore, role play controlled through cues and information and role play controlled through

situation and goals are applied and designed for the students in speaking classes

1.2.2.2 Procedures in using role play activities

When teachers decide to do role play in their classes, they must be familiar with the fact that the process proceeds through several stages According to Ladousse (1989), the activities should be arranged from controlled to creative ones At first there is the pre-communicative stage which gives learners fluent control over linguistic forms Here the main criterion for success is whether the learner produces acceptable language Then there is the communicative stage The production of linguistic forms becomes subordinate The criterion for success is whether the meaning is conveyed effectively It means that learners are presented some new items, they are drilled with these items, and then they are expected to be able to use them

 Presenting and practicing the forms and vocabulary

At this stage teachers present the language which is likely to emerge They teach the possible vocabulary and structures Some examples can be written on the board or given to learners on worksheets A sample dialogue can be introduced All the structures and vocabulary should be practiced properly so as the learners could

pre-be able to use them creatively in the next stage There are many suitable activities

which can be applied: drilling, learning the sample dialogue by heart, matching halves of the sentences, filling in exercises, putting the dialogues in the correct order, word games (hangman), etc It depends on the teacher what he/she will use

It usually takes some time before learners “memorize the forms, get the pronunciation right and consolidate the meaning of the item.” (Gower and Walters, 1983:83) Before the role play itself starts learners are equipped with all the possible language Later “some help can be given on the role cards, but these should not be overloaded or the students will be tempted to follow them too closely and simply recite the structures offered.” (Ladousse, 1989: 45)

 Role play

At first learners should be motivated and get involved in the topic The atmosphere should be friendly and relaxed because of shy learners The teacher explains the activity very clearly Learners have to know what to do exactly In this way they will feel more confident and they will benefit from the activity In role play learners usually work in pairs They can either find a partner themselves or the teacher can introduce some activities which put two learners together Then they get the role cards As a rule they should not look at each other‟s instructions It is suitable to set the time limit and stick to it Waiting until everyone has finished is not recommended During the activity the teacher monitors the learners to provide them with feedback later Finally, the volunteers can perform their dialogues, but nobody should be forced to do so

Meanwhile, role play activities can be divided into four stages (Cherif & Somervill, 1998: 613-617): preparation and explanation of the activity by the teacher; student preparation of the activity; the role – playing; and the discussion or debriefing after the role play activity

From these above opinions about the procedures in using role play activities, the author agree with Ladousse‟s view (1989) that after role play activities,

learner about his or her performance of a learning task, usually with the objective of improving this performance.” (Ur, 2000:242) “Teacher can see how well their class

is doing and what language problems they are having; students can also see how easy they find a particular kind of speaking and what they need to do to improve.” (Harmer, 2004:87) Each stage of role play should end with giving feedback to learners Their performance should be checked and evaluated Ur (2000) points out that feedback consists of two components:

 Correction: Some specific information is provided on aspects of the students‟ performance It should include information on what the student did right as well as wrong and why

 Assessment: Students are informed how well or badly they have performed According to Ur (2000), the teacher should note down errors in grammar and pronunciation and indicate how each learner communicated, how fluent she / he was It is not recommended to interrupt the students when they are talking because

it could spoil the act of communication and the point could be lost After role play, the mistakes can be written on the board and the students are invited to correct them The teacher should not say who made the mistakes

In brief, the above procedures do not mean an exact to be used It is flexible; teacher can create or develop procedures which is appropriate and suitable with his/her own class In this study, the author will implement role play activities in speaking classes based on the combination of the view of Ladousse (1989) and Ur (2000) on procedures of role play activities and Byrne (1991) about the development approach of speaking skills

1.2.3 Significance of role play in teaching speaking

It has been mentioned before in the above discussion that role play is one of the activities to promote speaking Through role play activities the students learn how

to express ideas, opinions or feelings to others by using words or sounds of articulation Larsen-Freeman (1986) explains that role plays are important in the communicative approach because they give learners an opportunity to practice

communicating in different social contexts and in different social roles According

to Ladousse (1987), role play uses different communicative techniques and develops fluency in the language, promotes interaction in the classroom and increases motivation Here peer learning is encouraged and sharing of responsibility between teacher and the learner in the learning process takes place

Besides, there are some special reasons for using role play in teaching speaking quoted from Ladousse (1995) as follows:

 A variety of experience can be brought into the classroom and teachers can train students in speaking skills in any situation through role play

 Role play puts students in situations in which they are required to use and develop those phatic forms of languages which are so necessary in oiling the works of social relationships, but which are so often neglected by our language teaching syllabuses

 Some people are learning English to prepare for specific roles in their lives

It is helpful for these students to have tried out and experimented with the language they will require in the friendly and safe environment of a classroom

 Role play helps many shy students by providing them with a mask

 Perhaps the most important reason for using role play is that it is fun

In sum, role play should be used in teaching speaking lessons It is a technique which can develops students‟ fluency in speaking, promotes students to speak or interact with others in the classroom, increases motivation and make the teaching – learning process more enjoyable

1.3 Summary

In this chapter, the author has reviewed the theoretical framework concerning speaking skills and role play activities The author hopes they are good theoretical bases so that she can fulfill the minor thesis successfully

CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter is to present research methodology chosen to achieve the aims and objectives of the study The research underwent the following steps:

 Conducting preliminary investigation

 Planning the action

 Implementing the action

 Observing the action

 Reflecting the action

2.1 Research design

The design of this study was classroom action research This design was chosen since this study dealt with the classroom setting and it was directed to implement the teaching technique in that specific class in order to find out solutions to the classroom problems in the teaching of speaking In this study, the author aimed at implementing the role play activities to solve the problem of poor speaking ability

of first year English major students of HaUI The author implemented the action in the form of cycles that followed Kemmis and McTaggart‟s model (2000:564) namely, planning, implementation, observation, and reflection

2.2 Setting and subjects of the study

This study was conducted at Faculty of Foreign Languages - HaUI, located in Minh Khai commune, Tu Liem district, Hanoi In order to serve the purposes of the study and, at the same time, to facilitate data collection and analysis, 28 students were chosen to participate in the action research All of them are the first year English major students, from 19 to 20 years old, and both males and females They

do not have the same level of English language proficiency Some of them have learnt English for 7 - 10 years at secondary and high schools Some have only learnt English for 3 years They can do grammatical exercises quickly but they cannot speak fluently Also, most of them do not feel confident when communicating in English The author also invited 17 teachers of major English group to participate in this study These teachers have taught English for at least one year They have not

only the knowledge of English but also knowledge of the subject matter Thus, the author believed that from these teachers‟ experience she would get information about the real condition of English teaching and learning speaking of the first year major English students Besides, she could take a look at students‟ major problems

in learning speaking English and their speaking ability Thereby, she could find an effective solution to improve the students‟ speaking skills

2.3 Research procedure

In order to conduct the study, the author followed several steps Those were preliminary investigation, action plan, implementation, observation, and reflection

2.3.1 Conducting preliminary investigation

To find out the current situation of teaching and learning speaking English as well as the first year English major students‟ main problems in learning speaking English and their speaking ability at the Faculty of Foreign Languages – HaUI, the author conducted a preliminary study The data collected through two questionnaires helped her to design the appropriate action plan to solve the students‟ problems

2.3.2 Planning the action

In this stage, the author made a preparation for the action which covered choosing teaching materials, preparing lesson plans, making role play activities evaluation form and setting the criteria of success

2.3.2.1 Choosing teaching materials

The teaching materials used in this study were mainly developed from a textbook named “Real Listening & Speaking 1” The textbook consists of sixteen units Eight units were selected for the first-half of the semester by the teachers of English major group and the author The units include Meeting people, Staying with

a family, Shopping, Food and eating out, Asking about services, Health, At a hotel and Tourism

Another teaching material was a set of situation cards The situations in which the students were asked to perform role play activities were based on the contents taught in class each week (Please see Appendix 6)

2.3.2.2 Preparing the lesson plans

The students had three consecutive classes a week Each class lasted 50 minutes The lesson plans were divided into three sequential stages – presentation, practice and production according to Byrne (1991:22), and were written to ensure that the two types of role play activities stated by Littlewood (1994) In general, for the role play activities controlled through cues and information, the situations were based on the first-four units including Meeting people, Staying with a family, Shopping, and Food and eating out For the role play activities controlled through situation and goals, the situations were based on the last-four units consisting of Asking about services, Health, At a hotel, and Tourism In these role play activities, the students had to pay special attention to the teacher‟s instructions, got the role cards, and were allowed to discuss the activity, and what they had to do Then, they were encouraged to practice their role play within pairs by using useful language as well as expressions provided during the lesson After the allowed time, they were asked to perform their role play in front of the class (Please see Appendix 3)

2.3.2.3 Making role play activities evaluation form

The form used to evaluate the students‟ speaking skills through role play activities was an analytical rubric The analytical scoring rubric explained the criteria of each scale for the author to evaluate the individual students‟ speaking performance The criteria were chosen to be evaluated based on the frame of Harris‟s (1969) oral English rating scales, those are: pronunciation, grammar, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension Each element was scored on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 (poor), 2 (average), 3 (good), 4 (very good) and 5 (excellent) The reason to choose Harris‟s (1969) oral English rating score frame was to help the author objectively see the characteristics of students‟ speaking ability whether they achieved 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 score It can be easy to calculate the score The amount of

maximum scores gained was 25 Besides, a space was provided on the form for the author to write some comments and feedback for the students to improve their performance in the next classes (Please see Appendix 4, 5)

2.3.2.4 Setting the criteria of success

The criteria of success were established in advance as a basis to determine whether the action implemented is successful or not Since most of the selected students themselves felt not good at speaking and confident when communicating in English, so the action was considered successful when: 1) 60 % of the students

reach at least the level good of speaking qualification for each language element

when they performed their conversation in front of the class, and 2) 60 % of the students fulfilled the first four of five indicators of high self-confidence when they involved in the teaching process as well as when they performed the conversation Regarding the first criterion of success above, it was very crucial for the author

to assess the students‟ performance In assessing the students‟ speaking performance, the author used observation checklist and the analytical rubric for speaking skills as mentioned

2.3.3 Implementing the action

The implementation lasted eight weeks and was adjusted with the English class schedule at the university where this study was conducted The implementation of the action referred to the manifestation of the designed plans covering the use of two kinds of role play activities as mentioned above

During the implementing of the action, the author acted as both the practitioner conducting the teaching in the class, and an observer observing the students‟ speaking performance and the improvement of the students‟ self-confidence At the first stage, her role was more dominant She tried to gather all possible materials, presented new language, equipped students with the new structures and vocabulary, drilled the new forms, and corrected the mistakes immediately At the second stage

to do The author just moved round the classroom, monitored the activity to see the strengths and weaknesses of the students, how each student communicated, how fluent he / she was, and noted down errors in grammar, pronunciation and communicative problems After the activity, possible feedback was given to the students Their performance was checked and evaluated through the analytical scoring rubric in which the criteria were selected based on the frame of Harris‟s (1969) oral English rating scales (Please see Appendix 4, 5)

2.3.4 Observing the action

At this stage, the author observed the whole aspects of the implementation of the action covering the students' participation in the classroom activities and during the students‟ speaking performance in front of the class when performing their conversations Apart from observing the students‟ ability to master language elements such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension, therefore, classroom observation also focused on the following elements:

 Students‟ active participation in the learning process;

 Ability to perform conversations in front of the class;

 Ability to give feedback to other peers

2.3.5 Reflecting the action

The data were obtained through the observations during the implementation of the action and then analyzed and the results of the analysis were consulted with the criteria of success The criteria of success of the action reflected the area of concern the teacher wanted to emphasize in the teaching and learning process Since this study was aimed at improving the students‟ speaking skills through role play activities, the criteria were set by considering some aspects related to the objectives

of the study

The reflection was done at the end of each cycle The results of the analysis of the implementation of the action were then evaluated to see whether the next cycle was needed or not The decision to continue the action in the next cycle was done when the criteria of success was not fulfilled

2.4 Research instruments

In order to obtain the required data, two data collection instruments including

survey questionnaires and classroom observation were used in this study

2.4.1 Survey questionnaires

In this study, three survey questionnaires were conducted The first two survey questionnaires were chosen to collect data for the preliminary study One survey questionnaire with 7 questions was designed for the 17 selected teachers who have taught English speaking to get their ideas on the learning reality, problems experienced by their students as well as their recommendation for improving the students‟ English speaking skills (Please see Appendix 1) Another survey questionnaire with 8 questions was for the 28 first year major English students to identify their opinions on their speaking lessons, the factors affecting their speaking competence, and to find out their expectations to achieve better speaking skills (Please see Appendix 2)

The third survey questionnaire was designed to find out the students‟ attitudes towards using role play activities in improving their speaking skills In order to make the questionnaires trustful, the questions were designed in different forms including open-ended and close-ended With 7 questions for students, the questionnaires were carried out and completed successfully with meaningful results (Please see Appendix 7)

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS, RESEARCH

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter consists of three parts, data analysis, research findings and discussion First, the analysis of the data of teachers‟ and students‟ questionnaires and findings from preliminary investigation is displayed in order to come to the conclusion that

it is very important to implement an action plan in which role play activities are used Then, findings from the implementation of action plan are discussed after two cycles using role play activities in speaking classes Finally, a discussion emerging from the findings is presented to answer the research questions

In specific, questions 1, 2, 3, 4 (see Appendix 1 ) and 1, 2, 4, 5 (see Appendix 2) were about the teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards the English subject, the speaking skill, the materials and the students‟ speaking competence as well Question 3 in the students‟ survey questionnaires was designed to ask about the students‟ participation in learning to speak English Question 5 in the teachers‟ survey questionnaires and question 6 in the students‟ asked about the difficulties the teachers and students at HaUI faced during the teaching and learning process The last two questions in the teachers‟ and the students‟ survey mentioned the teachers‟ techniques during the teaching time and their students‟ responses

Table 1: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards speaking skill and the role of

teaching and learning speaking skill

(Please refer to questions 1&2 in Appendix 1 and questions 1&2 in Appendix 2)

The table shows that 59 % of the teachers and 57 % of the students put listening skill ahead of speaking skill However, regarding the importance of speaking skill, 47% of the teachers and 57% of the students found that teaching and learning English speaking skill was very important to the first year major English students None of the teachers and students believed that it was not important at all

Chart 1: Teachers’ and students’ self-assessment towards students’ speaking

competence level

(Please refer to question 3 in Appendix 1 and question 4 in Appendix 2)

According to the chart above, most of them did not have optimistic assessment towards the students‟ speaking competence level The majority of the

self-None of the students was self-confident that their English speaking ability was very

good or excellent; and all of the teachers agreed that idea

Table 2: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards speaking material

(Please refer to question 4 in Appendix 1 and questions 5 in Appendix 2)

Chart 2: Teachers’ and students’ difficulties in teaching and learning English

speaking

(Please refer to question 5 in Appendix 1 and question 6 in Appendix 2)

From the collected data above, it can be found that that the teachers and students faced many difficulties during the process of teaching and learning speaking One of the biggest factors that prevented the students from expressing their ideas was their high anxiety and low self - confidence (38%) Surprisingly, 40% of the teachers shared the same idea with those students 26% of the teachers and 34% of the students agreed that students‟ limited vocabulary and the influence

of their native language were the obstacles for teaching and learning speaking skills

In sum, it is very crucial for the teachers to find out effective teaching methods so as

to reduce the students‟ difficulties in joining the speaking activities

Table 3: Teachers’ techniques to encourage students to speak and improve their

English speaking skills

(Please refer to questions 6 &7 in Appendix 1 and questions 7&8 in Appendix 2)

As seen above, the teachers have applied a lot of techniques to encourage their students to participate in class speaking activities or to improve their English speaking competence The table indicated that many teachers (28%) suggested that giving the students some other interesting topics might draw them more in the lesson and only 22% of the students would like their teachers to do such thing From the table, it can be seen that involving students into the real English situations seemed to be liked by both the teachers and students (29% and 38% respectively) From the data above, it can be clearly seen that the teachers as well as the students at Faculty of Foreign Languages – HaUI had experienced a variety of the speaking techniques Many of them were conscious of that the more techniques and strategies the teachers offer, the better their students improve the speaking skills

3.1.2 Findings from preliminary investigation

Having studied and analyzed the results obtained from the data in the two survey questionnaires for the teachers and students in preliminary investigation, the author realized that both teachers and students often encountered difficulties in teaching and learning English speaking The results of this investigation showed that the students‟ limited vocabulary, low self-confidence and low motivation, and the inappropriate material were the barriers to their speaking competence In addition, teaching methods were not very effective and attractive to the students even though the teachers have applied many various techniques in teaching speaking To make the situation better, the author suggested using role play activities as an appropriate and effective technique to improve speaking skills for the first-year English major students at HaUI That is why, she decided to conduct

an action plan in which role play activities were employed in speaking lessons The purpose of the action plan was to examine how the speaking skills of the first year English major students at HaUI could be improved through role play activities; and

to investigate the attitudes of the students toward using role play activities in teaching and learning English Therefore, research findings from the analysis results

of the action implementation will be discussed in the following part

3.2 Research findings and discussion from action implementation

3.2.1 Findings from cycle 1

Cycle 1 was carried out in the first four weeks after the present situation of teaching and learning English speaking to the first year English major students at HaUI had been demonstrated in the preliminary investigation

3.2.1.1 Findings from the students’ speaking performance

Table 4: Results of students’ speaking performance in cycle 1

In terms of pronunciation, one or two words mispronounced by 10 students

make the meaning unclear; as a result, they were at average level 15 students reached good level in pronunciation in which they pronounced only a few words incorrectly and the meaning was not affected 3 students reached very good level;

they made incorrect pronunciation in one or two words, which did not affect the

meaning

In terms of grammar, 6 students reached the average level, which meant that

they made grammatical mistakes almost in every utterance 14 students reached

good level They made one or two major mistakes which affected the meaning

made a few grammatical mistakes that did not affect the meaning of the message

they conveyed None of them was at poor or excellent level

Considering the use of vocabulary, the students did not have a lot of problems when they were going to use certain words, as the teacher had provided useful languages through listening tasks and speaking tasks, they just based on the given cues, information or situation in their role cards, practiced them with a partner and

presented them in front of the class Therefore, 9 students were at average level, 16

students reached good level; they used adequate vocabulary, and 3 students attained

very good level; they used varied vocabulary None of the students was at poor or excellent level

In terms of fluency in speaking, most students were influenced by their mother tongue They had difficulties avoiding this problem since they seldom practiced for several times 11 students hesitated in speaking; the message was not clear;

therefore, they reached average level Nearly half of the students (12 students)

hesitated in almost every utterance, ended utterances half-way, and then repeated

them; consequently, they were at good level Only 5 students reached the level very good, which meant that they hesitated at a few places and their fluency was not seriously affected None of them could reach poor or excellent level

In terms of comprehension, 8 students at average level only comprehended

what was said slowly and with frequently repetitions More than half of the students

(15 students) were at good level; they could understand most of what was said at

slower-than-normal speed with repetition Meanwhile, just 4 students understood

nearly everything at normal speed, so they reached very good level None of them attained poor or excellent level

3.2.1.2 Findings on the students’ self-confidence

From the data obtained from the observation, the author had the data about the students‟ self- confidence during the teaching and learning process Concerning the students‟ self-confidence in the first cycle, there were 23 and 24 students who expressed themselves at ease and did not show nervousness in speaking and